Clothes-drying device.



J. M. TEACH. CLOTHES DRYING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 16, 1909.

Patented Aug. 24, 1909.

WITNESSES zerfi h ATTORNEYS JACOB M. TEACH, OF SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA.

CLOTHES-DRYENG DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 24, 1909.

Application filed February 16, 1909. Serial No. 478,148.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Moon M. Tnacn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Santa Monica, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and Improved Clothes-Drying Device, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The purpose of this invention is to provide novel details of construction for a clothes drier, erected in the open air, which afford a simple, practical and inexpensive device that is very convenient in use and well adapted for the reception of a considerable number of pieces of clothing or other fabric that are to be exposed to the sun and air.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of parts, as is hereinafter described and defined in the appended claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the im proved clothes drier, showing its parts adjusted for stretching the clothes lines, and a part being broken away; Fig. 2 is a similar view, but showing the lines slackened to permit the placing of clothes or other fabrics thereon; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged partly sectional plan view of details, taken substantially on the line 33 in Fig. 1.

In the construction of the improvement, two posts 5, 6, are provided that may be of wood or metal; preferably said posts are formed of rectangular-bodied timbers, which are erected vertically at a suitable distance apart in the open air, each post being firmly planted in the ground, as shown in the drawings, and both reinforced by the inclined prop braces 5, 6 respectively.

Near the upper end of the post 5, a cross arm 7 is pivoted thereon, said cross arm being lapped on the post at or near its center of length and engaging the side thereof which is farthest from the post 6, the pivot (L assing loosely through the cross arm anc the post, whereby the cross arm is rockably supported thereon. From each end of the cross arm 7, a cord 1) hangs pendent to permit the manual depression of either end of said cross arm. A cross arm 8, substantially similar to the cross arm 7, is provided for a pivoted connection with the post 6.

At or near its longitudinal center, a pivot screw bolt 0 is inserted through the cross arm 8, after passing through a perforation in a guard board 9, formed at its transverse center and upper end, the screw bolt 0 being inserted into the post near its upper end. It will be seen that the plane of the side of the post 6, whereon the cross arm 8 is pivoted, is at right angles to the plane occupied by the cross arm 7 on the post 5.

The guard board 9 extends downward along the post 6 and is spaced therefrom by the cross arm 8 and also by a rockable lever 10, a pivot screw bolt 61 being inserted through the lower end of the guard board and then loosely through the lever between its ends, as is best shown in Fig. 2, said bolt being firmly screwed into the post, whereby the lever is adapted to receive rocking adjustment.

On the upper end of the lever 10, a toe e is formed, that will have a hooked engagement with the lowermost end of the cross arm 8 when parts of the device are adjusted as shown in Fig. 2. An adjustable hook bolt 6, having a lateral member that forms a hooklike head thereon, is screwed into the post 6 above the lever 10 and may be turned so as to engage the cross arm 8 and retain it as adjusted when the toe e on the end of the lever is engaged with the end of the cross arm mentioned, as shown in Fig. 2, this engagement of the hook bolt with the cross arm preventing a disconnection of said cross arm from the toe a,

Upon each end of the cross arm 7, one end of a' clothes line 11 is secured. The pivot bolt a is provided with an eye at its inner end, through which one end of a third line 11 is attached. The lines 11 have a suitable length and at their other ends are secured upon a spacing bar 12, said spacing bar having suflicient length to separate the lines properly, and it will be seen that the'ends of the lines 11 opposite those that are attached to the ends of the cross bar 7, are secured on the corresponding ends of the spacing bar, and the remaining end of the center line 11 is secured on said spacing bar at its center.

There are short lines 9 that may be portions of the clothes lines 11, extended from the spacing bar 12 toward the upper end of the cross arm 8, and are-thereto secured, as-

post 6, affording spaced locking shoulders on sald bar.

The keeper bar 13 is located on the same side of the post 6 as are the cross arm 8 and the lever 10, the latter havin a latch plate 11 secured thereon, that may e rocked into an engagement with the teethih by a rocking.-

move'ment of the lever 10 toward the latch late.- p Itwill be noted that by rocking thelevor 10 in the direction indicatedby the @arrow as in Fig. 2, the crossarm 8 will be :rocke'dinto a nearly vertical: position passing beneath the guard board 9,'and that this adjustment of the cross arm-8 effected by a depression of the lower end of the leverlO, will stretch the lines 11 taut as they appearin Fig. 1.' Obviouslyywhen thelever 10 is rocked into a nearly vertical position, as shown in Fig. 1, thelatch plate i will be engaged with the teeth It onthe keeper bar .13; which will'hold the lever engaged with the keeperbar, and the lines llrendered taut, as appears in full lines in Fig. 1. If'the lever 10 is released from the keeper bar-13 androcked into the position shown in Fig. 2, by pulling on either pendent cord 12, the lines 11 will be slackened andpermit the placing of fabric on the lines for exposure to the sun and air. 4 i

If but two lines are needed for drying purposes, the lever 10 may remain in depressed adjustment and the outermost lines 11 be successively depressed b pulling the respective cords I), thus roc ing the crossarm 7, so as to lower each line in sequence; as is indicatedforone line in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure'byLetters Patent:

A device of the class described comprising spaced posts, a :cross arm pivoted to each post, one of said cross arms swinging in a plane perpendicularto that" in which the other cross arm swings; a spacing bar on the end of one of the cross arms, a plurality of clothes lines connecting thespacing bar with the other cross arm, a lever'having-a toe for engagingtheother end of thecross arm provided with the spacing'bar, and pivoted to the samepost, and a toothed. rack for engagement by the lever 'toretain it in adjusted position. i

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JACOB M. TEACH. Witnesses:

ROBERT DoLLARn, V. M. PALMER. 

